First, take a look at HELP, STREAM...
>stream
STREAM

     Spools batch jobs or data from a session or job.  The
     optional time-related parameters of the STREAM command may
     be used to schedule jobs.

SYNTAX

     STREAM [filename] [,char]

             [;AT = timespec]

                     {day-of-week    }
             [;DAY = {day-of-month   }]
                     {day-until-month}

             [;DATE = datespec]
             [;IN = [days[, [hours] [,minutes]]]]

             [;JOBQ = queuename]

KEYWORDS: PARMS,OPERATION,STREAMING,TIMING,TERMINATING,EXAMPLE
>
PARAMETERS

filename            The Editor (ASCII) file containing the commands of
                    the job.  The first character of the first record is
                    assumed to be the replacement character for the
                    expected colon () that identifies MPE/iX commands.
                    The user must have READ or EXECUTE access.

char                Character used in place of colon () to identify MPE
                    XL commands within the input file.  When the input
                    file is entered on a device configured to accept
                    jobs or sessions, this character can be any ASCII
                    special (non-alphanumeric) character except a colon.
                    Default is an exclamation point (!).

What this does for me is I can stream this:
!job play,tracy.vms
!stream,#
#job moreplay,tracy.vms
#stream x
xjob x,tracy.vms
xeoj
#showjob
#eoj
!eoj

not a very good explanation; my understanding is that each character gets
translated INTO a colon during stream.  The "except a colon" spec applies to
the replacement character; a colon generally works ok I think, but beware it
means eof or similar sometimes.

Tracy how vague can I get? Pierce














> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Smithson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 1:19 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: First character in a STREAM file
>
>
>  Hello,
>
> I've only seen a few STREAM files.  They've always had a ! at
> the start
> of them except for when they are re-directing input into
> something like
> SORT.
>
> But now I've got a bit of a STREAM file from a customer which
> uses : at
> the start.  What is the significance of this?  Well I looked in the
> STREAM manual -
>
>      Begin each job in the input file with the !JOB command and
>      terminate it with the !EOJ command.  Begin all commands with
>      an appropriate substitute (other than colon) character, as
>      in !JOB.  When the input file is spooled to a disk, MPE/iX
>      replaces the substitute command identifier with a colon, so
>      that the data files are properly interpreted when executed.
>
> In other words, you can use any character BUT the ':'.  The
> customer has
> even used : with the JOB command but then , after the first few lines,
> they've decided to use '!'.  Then later on they might revert back to :
> for no apparent reason.
>
> Is there a good reason for this or are they being careless?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Peter
> --
> http://www.beluga.freeserve.co.uk
>
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